Iran: Journalist Accuses Officials Of Political Killings

Tehran, 30 November 2000 (RFE/RL) -- A top Iranian journalist, Akbar Gangi, told a Tehran court today some of the country's top officials authorized political killings in 1998. Gangi, on trial for endangering state security, said former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian ordered the assassinations of dissidents including Dariush Forouhar and his wife and several other activist writers.

Gangi also accused former head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, of indirectly authorizing the murders by encouraging executions of dissidents without trial.

The journalist, who has made similar charges in print, is accused of harming Iranian security by taking part in a public conference on Iran in Berlin in April.

Iran's Judiciary has said that the 1998 murders of dissidents were carried out by rogue intelligence agents and that the ringleader committed suicide after his arrest.